I know this is going to sound heretical but I wonder if a more receptive audience would not be Bayrou's soon-to-be-established parti democrate. Whats interesting about that effort is that he's not going to have big business and big financial support -- all that money is going to toe Sarkozy's line. Bayrou's not going to have the old Giscardiens around either; they'll all be palace eunuchs in the Sarkozy state. Bayrou's party, if it gets off the ground, is going to be driven by young people with new ideas about politics, media and economics -- and a desire first and foremost to renew French democracy by changing the major institutions of French public life.

My point is that France does need reform; that much is clear from how the last few months have played out. What it doesn't need is the destruction of its public services and a radical redistribution of wealth and power to the financial, commercial and business elites.

Great work, Jerome; here and every time you write these things.